Calgary investment firm head a retired bull rider from the Bahlsen cookie family

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There is no one path for rising generations in enterprising families. In this series we talk to members of next generations, whether they choose to take on a role in the family business, or its wealth stewardship, or to carve their own path.

A retired professional bull rider, Max Fortmuller is a member of the family that founded German cookie-maker Bahlsen in 1889.

Fortmuller talked to Canadian Family Offices about how his background – his mother’s side as part of a multigenerational family business, and his father’s side as part of a multigenerational farming family, dating back as far as the 1400s – influenced his post-athletic career, running Vesta Wealth Partners Ltd., a Calgary-based alternative investment firm aimed at managing risk for clients for the long term, and as president of Calgary-based Vesta Family Office.

Please share with our readers how the first generation in your family came to start a family business.

“My family’s [business] origins start in Hannover, Germany. The Founder, Hermann Bahlsen, built Bahlsen Cookies in 1889.

Among many of the founder’s accomplishments … was building the assembly line for baking cookies, five years before Henry Ford came out with his [in the early 1900s].

Members of the Bahlsen family still run Bahlsen Cookies today, however after four generations, our branch of the family split off and liquidated.

We launched our single family office, Vesta Family Office, in 2008 and now have the fifth generation of the Fortmuller family running the family office and the investment shop, Vesta Wealth Partners Ltd., that we run in Calgary, Alberta.”

What was it like growing up in a family business environment?

“Our story is unique compared to other family business stories. My siblings and I grew up on a different continent than the family business, as we immigrated to Canada when I was 5.

I grew up removed from the business, however we heard lots of stories when we were visiting our grandparents.

What I can say it is very unique growing up in a world where your previous generation has had many successes. There is a level of expectation, responsibility and a history that comes with being born into the family.

My family has always prided itself on getting a higher education, my grandfather studied in the U.S. and received a technician degree, which now would be known as an Engineering degree. My uncles followed in his footsteps; one uncle received his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calgary and the other uncle received his MBA from Northwestern University [in Illinois]. So after high school, I went to college and then university, Eastern New Mexico University for business administration, following my family’s footsteps.

In terms of growing up in a business environment, family members – my grandfather, and later mother – were involved in the business … and one insight is due to the success of the business, they had staff that executed most of the work, and we as family members were free to live our lives.

However, this being said, my mom always had horses at our place, and we were always expected to pitch in or do our part.

Then, on my father’s side, they ran a full farm, and me being the oldest, always wanted to be part of the operation so I worked with my dad and uncle when I could.

So in a different aspect, we were involved in the family business, and learned the values and work ethic of working with our hands and learning how to do chores.”

When did you feel your own interests start to take shape, and how did your family support you?

“As I was born into a family that had previous and continued successes, I always despised being treated differently due to the family I was born into or the prestige the name carried (although I have a different last name, we were and are still considered Bahlsens, as that is our mother’s maiden name).

As a result, I wanted to make my own path and do something for me.

My entrepreneurial interests started to take shape when I was 12 years old. I started working a summer job for a neighbour, taking people on trail rides through the mountains in Western Canada.

My mom married into a farming family, and my dad’s family tree dates back to the 1400s, and they were involved in many aspects of agriculture.

My parents had a passion for horses and trained, showed and sold horses in Germany. Due to my mom’s passion, she had many injuries through the years and when I decided to ride bulls, as my childhood dream was to grow up and be a cowboy, she always supported it, saying that because she had many injuries through her career, she couldn’t tell me I couldn’t do it.

I ended up riding bulls professionally for 10 years and ended up qualifying and winning a go round at the Canadian Finals Rodeo in 2008. As with most professional sports, they are young-man games, so I received advice from multiple people in my family in the rodeo world, saying that “you need to have something to fall back on,” so to get an education was drilled home. Oddly enough, I was one of the few people in my circle of friends that actually did.”

How did your educational choices affect your career?

“I wouldn’t say [my university degree is] the largest contributor to where I have made it today.

At the end of the day, an undergraduate degree is a piece of paper that states you finish what you start. My career as a professional athlete would have shown the same commitment to finishing what you start and doing the best you can with what you have in a particular situation.

The two largest values that I would have received from the professional athletic career are commitment and honesty, which have led significantly to what I have achieved in my career to date.”

What kind of supports did you get in achieving what you wanted to do?

“For me it was athletics and the friends that I created through the sport. I also had a family that supported my passion regardless of the dangers or the time commitment that was required.

Since retiring from bull riding, I have put a lot of effort into building my network of next-generation family-business operators that I can trust and can give me unbiased advice. One network that is committed to helping family enterprises, offices or just specifically next-generation family members and families grow and succeed is Family Enterprise Canada.

I have also created a network of senior family-business executives who I can go have lunch with and ask advice from.

Some advice that I received from two advisors on different occasions is I need to figure what type of leadership works for me, not to try and be someone else but be who I am and do what feels right for me.”

The interesting thing about advice is as a recipient you take all the advice in but then have to figure out the advice that works for you and utilize it. Usually there is a fair amount of wisdom in the advice, and items of what not to do, or bits of advice that didn’t pan out, which are equally of value.

Leadership is a very lonely place, so if you can share it with people that are familiar with it, it helps reduce the uneasiness around it.”

Do you feel any pressure to succeed, coming from a successful family business background?

“This is an interesting one, finding the balance of being successful and trying not to screw up.

If you think about the founder, or any Gen 1, did they ever really know what they were creating, or did they work hard, enjoy what they were doing and one day figure out that they created something pretty unique?

The question here is are you trying to do the same things as they did in previous generations, or have you been empowered enough by the previous generation to do the best thing for the company in this day in age?

I think every Next Gen battles with this and they want to honor what their parents or grandparents or great grandparents have done but also do what’s right to keep the business strong and growing for the current and future generations.

One benefit I have is that I am creating a new business, that is different than the previous generations’ business, so I don’t have the same limitations as other Next Gen’s do, however I still honor what previous generations have done, in building a great company that they would be proud of.

Equally, if I didn’t succeed and failed one day, I could take solace in all that I learned from all the shots I took and use them in my next adventure. As [country musician and rodeo champion] Chris Ledoux wrote ‘I’ll gladly take ten seconds in the saddle for a lifetime of watching from the stands.’

I also think it is completely natural to think of failure and I’m sure the previous generations had their times where they feared they were going to fail, too. The trick is not to let the thought of failure paralyze you.”

Do you have any advice for rising generations, whether they want to continue in the family business or not?

“My advice would be that everyone needs to figure out what makes them happy and what they enjoy doing – if it is working in the family business, that is perfectly fine, if it is working in a different environment, then that is okay, too.

James E. Hughes Jr. has advice from the book Family: The Compact Among Generations: [under the heading] ‘Can I be your partner?’ which alludes to both the previous generation and the Next Gens, [asking themselves whether] they have something they offer and is each party willing to put in the work or make the compromises necessary to be a partner and work productively to build a successful business.

The subtlety is that each party has to look at themselves first before they enter a partnership.

This has a lot of parallels with personal self-awareness, personal fulfillment and then the confidence to step outside your comfort zones to achieve more than you could on your own.

If you have a family that is willing to go the distance with you, and equally you with them, this can be the greatest thing you have ever done, and if not, it may not be, however the only way to tell is to see what you achieve in 20 years. As with all things, time will tell.”

Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

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